Abstract

As a professional social networking site carrying the philosophy of “Relationships Matter”, LinkedIn has registered great popularity. Despite the fact that LinkedIn is creating a common ground in connecting the job seekers and job recruiters, LinkedIn has been underutilized. Evidently, lack of elaborate communication platforms for human resource department(s) leads to employment of poorly skilled individuals translating to poor performance and productivity. The purpose of this study was to explore the uses and gratifications of LinkedIn as a communication platform in human resource development within the formal sector, among the employees and human resource practitioners in Nairobi County, Kenya. The sample population was gotten from a pool of human resource practitioners working in the formal sector within Nairobi County. A qualitative research approach was employed to give an in-depth perspective of the phenomenon being studied. Findings showed that LinkedIn is useful and gratified the human resources department communication needs and employees career development. However, the public sector gave reservations for the use of LinkedIn. Although majority of the human resource practitioners indicated that they were LinkedIn savvy, this study concluded that many LinkedIn users do not exhaust all the functionalities of LinkedIn. This study shows the glaring need of organizations to invest in LinkedIn use, especially for e-recruitment and training of employees. This study recommends an in-depth look at contextual case studies of a specific organizational use of LinkedIn and an explanation of the adoption of LinkedIn as a communication technology

Key Words: Uses and Gratification, LinkedIn, Social Networking Sites, Human Resource Managers (HRMs)

JCMR Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 13, No. 2, October 2021, pp. 11-20

© Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria (AMCRON).

About the authors

* Enock Masaki Magack is a graduate of Master of Arts in Communication Studies from United States International University-Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. He is currently the Marketing Manager for Lyle Kenya. He also volunteers as the Deputy Head of Radio and Head of Productions at USIU Radio 99.9FM. He has been a TV show panelist severally since 2017 on NTV Kenya, Citizen TV Kenya and recently Rembo TV Kenya. In addition, he hosts Friday Entertainment Show on GBS TV. He is also a member of the Mseto East Africa Wakilisha crew that auditions upcoming artists in selection for Kenyan radio show interviews.

** Martin Kuria, Ph.D., has a Bachelor of Arts in Electronic Media, Masters in Corporate Communication and PhD in Communication studies. He is a lecturer at Kenyatta University, Department of Communication, Media, film, and theater studies. His research interests are new media, media ethics, film, and media technologies.

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Article Citation

Magack, E. M., & Kuria, M. (2021). Uses and gratifications of LinkedIn as a communication platform for human resource development in the formal sector in Nairobi County, Kenya. Journal of Communication and Media Research, 13 (2): 11 – 20.